In the chambers of the High Court of the King were gathered nine of the ten ruling sages. They stood each in his place before the judgement seat where Zephyr sat. Kallida stood in the place of the second with Dehnhardt standing close behind him. There was an emptiness to his left.  "Where is Blackridge?" Kallida inquired in the form of a harsh whisper directed toward the young man standing behind him. 

"They're back!" Kypher announced excitedly from his place at the window.  "It's about time!" Justice responded with his usual curtness, though unable to mask his obvious joy. Kypher laughed. "Justice, if this were a funeral, you'd be mad at the man for dying! Just be glad h

'It's no good: all of this death, all of this hurt. I won't allow it any longer. How long will this darkness prevail?'He stood alone in the library hall. They were all gone. They had left him according to the words of his request. There was only the stairwell, a clever means of slipping away into an underground world, which remained open to him. This had been his home, and those whom he had loved as family and cherished as friends he had hidden away within its walls, held in the safety of its depths.‘I appreciate your devotion and your sacrifice, truly, I do, but, this time, as I said, it is my turn to give to you.’He stretched forth his hand and let out a slow breath of air. Fire flew from his fingertips and impacted the carved stone of the wall, closing the entrance to the stairs and concealing it neatly beneath the bookshelf. He lowered his arm, content to have procured the safety of his companions.‘If I die, I die, but none shall perish beside me. For, if a man must die today,

'Ben...'  She sat on her heels with her back against the wall and her eyes watching the ceiling. Kypher stood across from her, leaning against the wall with his face serious, arms crossed, and head down. There was a door to her left through which Justice had entered and behind which Eliezer still slept. Ellis and Mira had gone to make ready some provisions for their eventual, seemingly inevitable journey to somewhere, and Avera had elected to assist the Wellses in their preparations, which both Dorcus and Kypher had agreed was probably for the bes

They were talking in the hallway about a place she had heard of but never been, a town called Elkshire. Sometimes referred to as the "Kingsmen Capital", Elkshire was a forest town and the most prominent of the eastern region. The town itself was relatively unremarkable with two notable exceptions. The first: that the Council of the Kingsmen was seated in Elkshire and from there they judged the Kingsmen from throughout the empire. The second: that Elkshire was itself a city-state, entirely independent of Altruon and its government.  It was vital that Altruon and Elkshire should remain in